Reviews for The Cross of Lead (Crispin Series #1)

The average rating for The Cross of Lead (Crispin Series #1) based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-06-17 00:00:00 Robert Turner AVI2.0 Review: With warnings, gender changes, and a post script! I just dawned on me that the stupid plot revealing subtitle is there because Avi means for this book to be the start of a series, and a quick check shows that there is a sequel. Avi has a unique skill at flattening characters. Everyone pretty much sounds the same as every other character. ShHe also has a knack of making herhis characters unlikable. Not in the I hate them sort of way, but in the why do I give a (If you are under the age of 17 please look away for one word) fuck what happens to them way. If I had read this book as a child it would have bored me to death. I would have hated this book. As an adult I could read it in a couple of hours and pass over the dryness with the greatest of ease. There is nothing exciting really in this book. The action is telegraphed so poorly before it happens that there really aren't any surprises. I'm starting to think now that Avi meant for Crispin to be her his Harry Potter. Orphan kid, mysterious past, befriended by some big oaf of a man, those kind of silly subtleties. I don't have too many (any?) facts to base this on (just like I had no facts to base the idea that Avi was a woman on, but that doesn't stop me from saying things), but there is the feeling that this is Harry Potter with all of the fun vacuum sucked out of it. Why Avi is critically acclaimed is beyond me. This is the second of her his countless books I have read, and each of them has been blah. The first one I could see appealing to kids, but it was too moronic for me to stomach; and this one I don't see who the audience is, except maybe Middle School teachers always on the lookout for new instruments to torture their students with. The wealth of little historical day to day facts in the book will be fodder for many a (If you are under the age of 17 please look away for one word) crappy teacher to bore the (If you are under the age of 17 please look away for one word) shit out of students for a long time to come. Post Script, for Children. I, the author of the review you just read, am sorry if I have been the first to scar your young minds with foul language. It is wrong to curse, and it shows your ignorance, that is until you are older and then it shows your immaturity, but maybe not your ignorance. This is a distinction you will need to face yourselves when you get older. But if you have read this review, let me offer you some words of encouragement that I wish had been offered to me: if your teacher loves this book and you do not love it, don't think there is anything wrong with you. Also do not think that it means you are just not the type to like books, or that there are no books out there for you. This is not a good book. Your teacher by liking this book, is possibly the type of person who deep down knows very little about books. Also there is possibly some unspeakable trauma in his or her past has driven him or her to be a teacher and is attempting to take all the goodness out of books and turn them into something that they feel deserve to be hated and despised. Sadly, teachers are good at ruining things, doubly sadly (don't ever use that phrase yourself, it will make you look stupid, be smarter than me) there are very few good teachers out there. I hope that if you are reading this you have one of the awesome teachers. If you don't have one of them, realize that your teacher is a very disturbed individual, and something happened that either killed his or her desire to live and/or make everyone else in the world see the world as joylessly as they do. Try not to hate them, but feel pity for them. They need love. Don't try to hug them though, that could end badly. Just feel pity and offer them love at a distance.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-07-22 00:00:00 Jeffrey Tobish i didn't hate it as much as greg did, but i know what he means about it being a little flat. i probably would have enjoyed this as maybe an 8 year old. is that too old - i don't remember what i was doing at 8, except i had unfortunate teeth. i'm not going to run right out and get the sequel to this or anything, but it's a perfectly serviceable medieval tale of secret origins and poverty and swords. come to my blog!